Sue – How Do You Love Being a Trail Horse Again!?

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 It was a Sunday. We had 40 acres of downed trees, water crossings, shrubs, close trees and forest paths to traverse.Sue and I took our first real trail ride with Jenny and her horse on their property in Fair Play, Mo...down in the Ozarks. Later on, I realized that I forgot to be scared. I wasn't scared or nervous the entire ride! Sue lowered her head and relaxed before we even took off. What a miracle! We mounted the horses and off we went. Sue was anxious to go faster…

Sue – How Do Your Eyes Sparkle!

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I've been letting Sue be a horse in the pasture for 2-3 months since it has been so cold, icy and snowy here. One day when I walked out to the pasture, I noticed that Sue was more outgoing. Her eyes were darker and more intent. Much to my amazement, she had moved up one horse in the pecking order. wow Sue got to attend a clipping and braiding clinic a couple of weeks ago. When I took her to the clinic, I noticed that she hadn't regressed. In the…

Sue – How Do You Interupt that Negative Fear Behavior?

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I've not been able to get Sue to circle online without her going into the fear zone. Even the "S" turn manuever gets her riled up and rigid. She gets deep into fear before we hit the "S" of the turn and doesn't recover too much when we managed our direction change. She's sort of like a freight train to try to get turned and going the other way. I've been doing half circles on the wall and that has worked reasonably well to interupt that fear. BUT Tonight..we played…

Sue – How Do You Do Plateau?

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Yep, we've plateau'd. Of course that's not a real word. Sue has spent her first week at the boarding stable, called "For the Horse" Ranch. A small amount of her fear came back and I spent two riding nights with her completely on the ground. I managed to ride her the third night. After a couple laps around the arena, we stopped and I breathed again. That fear is there waiting.... We had two clinics on Saturday. One was with Jenny Vaught in the am and the other one was…

Sue – How Do YOu Do with an Uncoordinated Clod of a Rider?

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My personal life got in the way again of riding and time has passed. I also haven't reported on the great rides Sue and I've had in the Monday nite lessons...She knows the other horses now and is very relaxed. So, I've taken off work and riding during the day all this week (except, I got interupted again by my personal life). Anyway. There are three horses being rode in the arena. One of them is standing still. The other one is zipping around. I decide today is the new…

Sue – How Do You Do in Arena Chaos?

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The arena was filled with horses. One horse and "new to us" rider  didn't even know we were fearful. She was new. We rode in an organized chaos. We all rode in a straight line somewhere and first stopped and did hindquarter perfect turns. Then we trotted, stopped and did our hindquarter perfect turns. After we did that for a while, we started at the walk again and did perfect forequarter turns...and then again at a trot. How do you think Sue did with horses going every which way? She was…